Welcome to the Qualitative Election Study of Britain

This blog is a resource for scholars, researchers and students interested in qualitative electoral research. All the material on this site is available for reuse under the Creative Commons license. This allows you to use any material on this website and build upon this research as long as you provide proper credit.  You can learn more about how to properly attribute work offered under Creative Commons license here.

2025 Data Releases

The QESB is a collaborative effort between researchers from the UWE Bristol, the University of Dundee, and GESIS in Germany. Since our launch in 2010, our aim has been to learn about the thoughts, feelings, and opinions of every day voters, before and after the UK general election.

The Qualitative Election Study of Britain (QESB) is proud to announce the data releases for the UK general election held on the 4th of July, 2024. We would like to take this opportunity to thank our previous focus group panellists for their continued support, and extend a warm welcome to any newcomers for this year – we thank you for your interest in our study.

Qualitative Election Study of Britain: Pre- and Post- Election Transcripts, 2024 (click here)

In June and July 2024, seventy-six eligible voters took part in pre-election online and in-person focus groups for the 2024 UK General Election. Sixty-one participatnts returned for focus groups or interviews in the post-election data collection round in July and August 2024.

Citation: Oliver, Thom and Carvalho, Edzia and Winters, Kristi (2025). Qualitative Election Study of Britain: Pre- and Post- Election Transcripts, 2024. [Data Collection]. Colchester, Essex: UK Data Service. 10.5255/UKDA-SN-857874

Qualitative Election Study of Britain Party Leader Evaluations Database, 2005-2024 (click here)

The Qualitative Election Study of Britain (QESB) Party Leader Evaluation Database 2010 – 2024 contains the collection of 5,504 words and phrases that evaluate British political party leaders collected during pre-election focus groups and interviews conducted with participants from England, Scotland and Wales, during the General Election campaigns of 2010, 2015, 2017, 2019, and 2024.

These data are structure for use in sentiment analysis. Each tab contains a column listing participant’s’ words and phrases as a string variable; the next two columns list the election year and leader, affective evaluations (relating to, arising from, or influencing feelings or emotions) as a string variable, and the affective evaluation as a numeric scale from negative –1 to positive +1. These data are suitable for sentiment and discourse analysis, or analytic generalization – establishing that a concept exists within a population regardless of the number of people who hold it.

Winters, Kristi and Carvalho, Edzia and Oliver, Thom (2025). Qualitative Election Study of Britain Party Leader Evaluations Database, 2005-2024. [Data Collection]. Colchester, Essex: UK Data Service. 10.5255/UKDA-SN-857826

Focus Groups 2024

How do I get involved?

To participate in our focus groups, we kindly request that you fill out our participant recruitment form which can be found here. If you are selected to participate, we will be in contact with some further information.

As ethical researchers, we want you to be fully informed about what we are asking of you, and how we collect and use your information for the purposes of our research. To this end, we have prepared some documentation that we advise you to read through prior to registering.

Participant Information Brochure

Privacy Notice for Research Participants

Participant Consent Form

How can I contact you?

If you have any questions or concerns regarding the sign-up process, or the study itself, we would be glad to hear from you. You can reach us by email at qualesb@gmail.com, and one of our team members will contact you as soon as possible.

We would like to thank you again for your interest and support for the study. We look forward to chatting politics with you soon.

Sincerely,
The QESB Team